Hailey's P.O.V.
"I'm so sorry"
My mouth was hung open in absolute shock, repulsion, and fury. My words escaped me as my breath caught in disbelief.
I couldn't speak. I couldn't breathe.
This couldn't be happening.
"W-what?," I stammered, the shock etched on my face, "Can you repeat that? I-I think I blacked out."
The concierge offered me a sympathetic smile, "We are fully booked for tonight, we only have one room available"
I struggled to control my temper. Of fucking course this would happen to me. After this disastrous day of managing the idiots I work with, this was the last thing I needed.
"Do you think any other hotels in the area would have another room available?" It was Karl's voice that cut through the silence.
She shook her head with a pained expression on her face, "I'm so sorry, but I don't think so. Due to the hurricane, a couple of small towns in the area had to evacuate, everywhere is completely booked"
Unbelievable. Jimmy had reserved almost every room in this damn hotel, yet, due to Kris having to go take care of Tucker, and Chandler opting to bunk with Nolan rather than room alone, neither Karl or I had anywhere to sleep.
"So," I said very, very slowly, "This is our only option?"
Again, another sympathetic smile from the 20-something blonde standing in front of us, "It seems that way..." She trailed off, leaving me horrified for the night ahead.
I desperately began searching for solutions, however, I quickly realized that there was nothing else to be done...
I felt Karl's stare burning into me. Something about his stupid stare made me want to punch him in the face. I was exhausted, frustrated, and just ready for a hot shower.
In a defeated whimper I managed to mutter, "Alright, we'll take it"
"Perfect!" The peppy woman's voice rang out, as she began hurriedly typing on the computer in front of her, "I'll just need to see your IDs, but you will be staying in suite 313"
I cringed as the realization set in, before muttering a weak "Thank you".
She smiled fondly at me, blindly ignoring the lingering thickness that hung in the air.
"Alright, these will be your room keys. Please, enjoy your stay!"
I grabbed the room keys off the counter before muttering a non-convincing 'Thanks' and beginning to walk towards the elevators.
The small lobby felt stifling with the constant noise of a rhythmic drip, drip, drip of rain falling through a crack in the ceiling. I shifted nervously, the silence palpable.
Ding.
The elevator doors slid open as we stepped inside. I clenched my jaw and began to rub harsh nervous circles on the skin below my ear.
Karl leaned down and pressed the '3' button without a word. The agonizingly slow ascent heightened my anxiety until, finally, we reached our floor.
Neither of us had spoken since our argument in the car.
Another small ding was heard from the machine, as we were greeted with the small lobby occupying the beginning of the third floor. Together, Karl and I stepped out of the elevator and began to wander the halls of the hotel, searching for suite 313.
I spotted suite 313 quickly, but I hesitated to call Karl over. Dread filled my bones as I stared at the door.
I know it shouldn't be a big deal. I mean, Karl and I were both adults, we could be mature about this... But yet, I couldn't shake the lingering feeling that this was different. The thought of sharing this room, sharing this bed, made my skin crawl.
My thoughts were interrupted by a voice that rang from behind me, "Oh good, you found it" Karl effortlessly approached the hotel door, not a second thought crossing his mind.
He swiftly inserted the key into the door unlocking it with ease before letting himself inside. He held the door open and glanced back at me, "You coming?"
I shook my head, "Yeah, yeah, sorry" I pulled myself from my misery, slowly dragging my suitcase behind me, inside of suite 313...
In one word, the room felt claustrophobic.
I ground my teeth together as I analyzed the small space. There was a queen-sized bed occupying the majority of the room, accompanied by two bedside tables, a TV mounted on the wall, a small wardrobe tucked in the corner, and a bathroom that was about as inviting as a gas station's.
This is going to be a long night.
Silently, I took another hesitant step into the room before pulling my suitcase to rest against the adjacent wall.
Karl cleared his throat, drawing my attention, "So, uh-" He hesitated, it was clear the mere size of this room was making both of us uncomfortable, "I'll take the floor I guess"
My eyebrows rose, surprised at his offer. "Um, yeah alright, if that's what you want"
He shot me a confused stare, "Is that not what you want?"
I felt my cheeks begin to heat at my misspoken words, "Uh, no- no yes!" I stammered, none of my words coming out right, "I just meant- uh thanks" I couldn't keep the cringe off of my face at my embarrassing attempt to speak English.
The room was filled with a dampening silence once again, "I'm uh-" I cleared my throat, trying to regain confidence, "I'm gonna take a shower"
Karl nodded politely, before turning to begin unpacking his belongings for the night. I tensely turned to my suitcase where I grabbed my toothbrush, face wash, and shampoo for my shower.
After acquiring the necessities, I hurriedly scrambled my way into the bathroom, trying to evade Karl's presence as quickly as possible.
I quickly locked the door to the bathroom before turning the nozzle of the shower and allowing the steaming hot sensation to fill the room. I effortlessly shed my clothes before stepping under the boiling water.
I rubbed my hands against my face and over my body, as I began to scrub the filth caked on my skin from the last few days on set.
"How the fuck did I end up here?"
I groaned out loud at the thought as the last few days came crashing down on my shoulders. I was so ready to be done with this trip, and to be done with Karl Jacobs.
I quickly finished the remainder of my shower, as I stepped out and wrapped a towel around my body.
"Oh shit." I said as the realization slammed into me like a ton of bricks, "You have got to be fucking kidding me"
I forgot my clothes.
Of course, I forgot my clothes, this was almost too fucking easy.
I began to panic. I had two options, both equally humiliating: I could either open the bathroom door and walk out in front of Karl in just a towel, or I could pathetically ask him to go through my bag and grab me a pair of clothes.
I almost considered asking Karl to grab my sweats, but then I thought about Karl having to grab me a bra and underwear and I decided it was too humiliating.
I ran a stressed hand over my face as I attempted to muster the confidence to open the door.
"Alright Dunnlap, you have to do it. There's no other way out..." I whispered to myself, trying to build my courage. "Three, two, one-"
I opened the door and watched as the thick steam from the bathroom met the cold, air-conditioned temperature of the main space. I took a confident step into the room attempting to completely ignore Karl's presence.
Unfortunately, I couldn't help myself from sneaking a small glance in his direction. But, when my eyes found his, all I could focus on was the stunned look lighting up his features, and the cherry red blush that appeared on his cheeks.
To make matters worse, Karl had already made himself comfortable in his handcrafted bed on the floor. So as I walked right past him from that angle, I knew if he took even a glance up, he would see my entire vagina proudly on display.
I quickly whipped my head back around, trying to avoid eye contact for the remainder of my walk of shame.
However, the sound of Karl clearing his throat from the other side of the room caught my attention. I turned to back to look towards him and noticed he had switched positions to where he was sitting up with his legs crossed over one another, nose buried deeply into a riveting post on Instagram, obviously doing his best to keep me out of his line of sight.
I let out a small sigh of relief at his small act of kindness, as I realized I would be able to keep my decency. So, I focused my attention back on minimizing my embarrassment.
I finally made it to my suitcase and crouched down in front of it before I began to desperately dig for a clean pair of clothes to change into. I swear, I was holding my towel so tight around me I think my blood circulation was beginning to cut off.
I finally located the last piece of clothing I needed before standing up and shuffling back to the bathroom to change.
"God, how can this get any worse?"
As I pulled on my final piece of clothing, I looked up at myself in the mirror and took a long, hard, stare while I wondered what life choices I made to find myself in this situation.
However, the longer I stared, the more I noticed all of the details I tried to ignore about my body.
I hated myself. I hated my body. I have never felt confident in the way I looked, felt, or even acted. I had so many insecurities it was pathetic. And I just paraded one of them in front of my least favorite person on the planet.
I scoffed at my reflection in the mirror as I hugged my arms closer to my body.
"Way to make everything weird Hailey. He's probably even more disgusted with you now than he was before"
I shook my head as the toxic thoughts filled my brain. I knew it wasn't probable, but something about the possibility of Karl finding me revolting started to give me a stomach ache.
Pushing my insecurities aside, I shakily opened the door and marched my way over to the bed, trying to ignore Karl's burning stare at my reappearance.
"Oh wow," I could feel my eyes begin to roll just at the sound of his shrill voice, "So we decided to wear pants this time?"
"Oh shove it Jacobs" I hissed at him, venom lacing my tone.
Stubbornly, Karl refused to meet my stare and continued to botherlessly scroll through Instagram, a cocky smirk plastered on his lips.
I couldn't stand to look at him for a second more. In an act of defiance, I roughly turned off the small lamp that was illuminating the room and flipped over onto the other side of the bed, forcing him to stare at my back.
"Hey" I heard him call out to the dark, annoyance lacing his tone, "Uh, I was kinda using that"
"Yeah? Cry about it" Was the only answer I responded with, before stubbornly closing my eyes and attempting to fall asleep.
I heard him harshly blow out a breath of air before muttering to himself, "Whatever" I then heard rustling from him as he assumably stood up and said, "I'm showering" Before I began to hear his footsteps fade towards the bathroom.
I closed my eyes, the stress of it all getting to me. I was just ready for this weekend to be over...
. . .
"I don't know Alison, I just can't see things working out with Dean long-term" I huffed as we began our cool-down skate.
Practice had just ended and Alison and I were talking as we slowly made our way around the rink stretching out our limbs.
"Yeah, I get where you're coming from Hails," Aly admitted, "It's just a shame because you guys were such good partners"
I sighed, "Yeah, I know. I guess it's true what they say, never date your partner..."
She giggled at my comment, "I thought you would have learned that from watching my trainwreck with Bradley freshman year"
I smiled and crinkled my nose at the memory, "Yeah you're right, that was a trainwreck"
I felt a solid contact with my arm as Alison reached out and smacked me for my comment. I laughed at her playful mannerisms as we continued to slowly skate around the rink.
The sound of the rink door slamming open caught both of our attention, as we turned to see a guy with messy brown hair and a camera hanging from his neck begin scanning the ice before his eyes nervously landed on us.
Ally and I exchanged a glance before wordlessly deciding to continue minding our business. However, our temporary peace would not last long.
"Uh-um, excuse me!" I turned on my skates at the sound of the voice, as I watched the man begin to stumble in our direction, his air force 1's still firmly on his feet, looking like a baby deer walking for the first time.
I couldn't help but let out a small giggle at the man's terrible balance. I figured I would make it easier for him and begin to skate in his direction.
I silently nudged Ally, motioning to her that I would go see what the guy wanted, before pushing a bit harder on my left foot and beginning to glide in his direction.
"H-hey" The guy stuttered, as I came to a stop in front of him.
"Um, hi," I said suspiciously, "What's up?"
"Oh" The man seemed to remember his reason for beckoning me over, "I'm with the hockey team and we need the ice"
I looked up and down at the person in front of me, before admittedly rudely saying, "You're with the hockey team?"
A scoff left the man's lips, as an entirely new attitude seemed to fill his body. Yet, he still maintained a gentle composure and said, "Yes. I am the team's photographer"
I licked my lips, immediately realizing how my question must have sounded, "Oh, yeah, okay... um, I'll just grab my friend and we'll get out of your way"
The man shot me a tight-lipped smile, "That would be appreciated"
I nodded wordlessly, before turning on my right skate to begin gliding towards Alison. However, I was incredibly unsuccessful. In a flash I went from confidently pushing off, to feeling a force knock into my back painfully dragging me into the hard, unforgiving, ice below.
"What the fuck?!" I screeched out, immediately shooting my arms out to try and rid of the weight that was pulling me down.
"I'm sor-" Before the words could escape the man's lips, in my futile attempt to push him off of me, I accidentally ended up punching him in the nose.
Blood splattered all over the ice, as the man in front of me instinctively went to protect his nose and began yelling, "Aw shit! Fuck, fuck, fuck! What the actual fuck?!"
"Holy fuck," I said, my eyes going wide as I looked at the blood-stained ice.
"Oh my god, Hailey!" Alison cried out as I heard her skates stop behind me, "Are you okay?!"
It was only when I looked up at Alison that I noticed the blood spilling from my hand. Turns out, when the man tackled me from behind, the blade of my skate found the soft skin of my hand in the fall creating a small cut at the center of my palm.
Just when I thought matters couldn't get worse, I heard the idiotic chuckle of Henry, the star of the hockey team, come skating up behind the bleeding man.
"Yo, bro! What the fuck are you doing?! You're gonna get aids or something from all this blood" Henry chuckled while looking at the gnarly scene.
I rolled my eyes the anger finally manifesting itself into words, "Why the fuck did you decide to fucking tackle me?" I shot a death glare towards the bleeding boy in front of me, holding his possibly broken nose.
"I didn't fucking tackle you bitch!" He retorted, surprising me that the nerd seemed to have an edge, "I fell and then you punched me in the nose!"
"Hey, don't call her a fucking bitch!" I heard Ally yell from beside me. If you think I have anger issues, well you got another thing coming with Alison.
"Ladies, clearly this is all a misunderstanding. I know Karl didn't mean to hurt Hails, we can work this out" Henry said, sounding stoned out of his mind.
I turned my sights on Henry, "Well tell your friend Karl, to stay off my ice." I bitched, making sure to glare at him as I said the last words.
"Come on Hailey, let's get you cleaned up" I heard the soft voice of Alison coo from above me, as she grabbed me by the arm and began to pull me to my feet.
As we skated away, I heard the voice of Karl yell out, "Didn't know daddy paid for it princess. I'll be sure to respect your ice next time"
If I wasn't already satisfied with the amount of blood pouring from his nose, I think I would have turned around and killed him. But Alison was always smarter than me as she immediately began saying, "Hey, right now it's an accident, if it turns into something more, you can get kicked off the team. Don't let that asshole win."
I nodded my head, doing everything in my power to refrain myself.
"We're probably never gonna see that twerp again anyways. Don't stress Hailey, he's not worth your time"
. . .
"Hails"
...
"Hailey"
...
"Hey, Dunnlap"
...
"Hailey wake up"
. . .
shit is about to get very, veryyyyy, interesting.
next part will be posted soon <3